Donaldson elected president of the American Evaluation Association

Thursday, September 05, 2013

Stewart Donaldson, dean of Claremont Graduate University (CGU’s) School of Social Science, Policy, and Evaluation (SSSPE), has been elected president of the American Evaluation Association (AEA). Donaldson is widely recognized as one of the key thought leaders in the field of evaluation. He is also one of the principal architects of the AEA, an international association of professional evaluators devoted to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of programs, policies, personnel, products, and organizations to improve their effectiveness. The organization has approximately 7700 members representing all 50 of the United States as well as over 60 other countries. Donaldson was elected to the board of the AEA in 2009, and directed some of its most seminal programs.

“This is a well-deserved recognition for decades of dedication, leadership, and work by Dean Stewart Donaldson,” said Claremont Graduate University President Deborah Freund. “His election to this prestigious position acknowledges his role as an innovator in evaluation sciences and underscores his extraordinary accomplishments. He has brought CGU to world leadership in this field.”

Dedicating more than 20 years to the development of theories and models of evaluation, Donaldson is also an influential author in the field with more than 200 evaluation reports, scientific journal articles, and chapters. Among his 10 books is his 2007 publication, Program Theory-Driven Evaluation Science: Strategies and Applications; and his 2009 publication, What Counts as Credible Evidence in Applied Research and Evaluation Practice? These books are widely recognized as invaluable texts for courses in evaluation and applied research methods. His latest books, The Future of Evaluation in Society: A Tribute to Michael Scriven, and Emerging Practices in International Development Evaluation with Tarek Azzam and Ross F. Conner, were published in August and February, 2013. He also has served on the editorial boards of the most prestigious journals in the field: The American Journal of Evaluation; New Directions for Evaluation; and the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, and Evaluation & Program Planning.

CGU has the largest and most highly regarded graduate program in evaluation in the world. A central focus for the programs is the Claremont Evaluation Center (CEC), co-directed by Donaldson and Professor Michael Scriven. It is the base for all major applied research and evaluation initiatives in SSSPE. The CEC organizes and delivers the AEA’s Graduate Education Diversity Internship program designed to bring graduate students from underrepresented communities into the field of evaluation. Donaldson is the co-chair of this national program. The CEC also manages the e-learning Initiatives in consultation with UNICEF and the Rockefeller Foundation; the Claremont Annual Professional Development Workshop series in Evaluation and Applied Research Methods, which this year had more than 1000 participants from more than 100 countries in person and online; the distance learning certificate of Advanced Study in Evaluation; and the residential MA and PhD degree programs specializing in Evaluation and Applied Research Methods.

“It was a great honor to be nominated for this prestigious and highly influential post,” Donaldson said. “I am both humbled and inspired by being elected to serve a presidential term in 2015, the ‘International Year of Evaluation.’”

Beyond Claremont Graduate University, Donaldson has reached out to a global audience through teaching, mentorship, practice, and developing leaders in evaluation sciences. He has influenced the careers of students, faculty, and evaluators through talks and workshops in more than 30 cities throughout the U.S., as well as overseas in places such as Africa, Italy, Croatia, Greece, Portugal, Australia, Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Barbados, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

About Claremont Graduate University

Founded in 1925, Claremont Graduate University is the graduate university of the Claremont Colleges. Our five academic schools conduct leading-edge research and award masters and doctoral degrees in 24 disciplines. Because the world’s problems are not simple nor easily defined, diverse faculty and students research and study across the traditional discipline boundaries to create new and practical solutions for the major problems plaguing our world. A Southern California based graduate school devoted entirely to graduate research and study, CGU boasts a low student-to-faculty ratio.